


Strange

by apostapals (apostapal)



Category: Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-18 04:10:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8148685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apostapal/pseuds/apostapals
Summary: Warden-Commander Cousland is full of surprises.





	

"Commander, I--do you have a moment?"

She shakes her head at him. "Once upon a time, you stuck a toad in my dress, and now you cannot call me by my first name in private?"

He smiles. "As I recall, you decked me for that and made me apologize to the toad for displacing him. So, no, Commander it is."

She tuts, shakes her head again, smiles like she knows something he doesn’t–maybe she does, and asks, “What did you need?”

“Oh, well,” he’s almost forgotten what he was there for in the first place, “I was here to ask why you have me accompanying you to Weisshapt?”

“You’re my second, Nathaniel.” she says, as if it’s something they’ve discussed (they hadn’t), “Of course I’m taking you to meet with the First Warden.”

He feels himself going pale.

“What?”

“You’re my second.” she repeats, slower this time. But it’s not that he didn’t hear, it’s that he doesn’t understand.

“Since when?” he blurts. It’s so _eloquent_ she laughs.

“You don’t want it?” she asks.

He does. It’s another thing he’s fixed for the Howes. Lady Cousland is a strange woman. She destroys their name and then raises it up in the same moment. She’s made them better, even, in many ways.

“Of course I do. But…” he frowns, “When did this happen?”

“I’m officiating it when we speak to the First Warden.” she explains, kicking her boots up onto her desk. She leans back in her chair, the same undignified nature he remembers from their youth, and grins at him.

Nathaniel stares at her for a long moment, her smile never fading. When the silence nearly becomes uncomfortable, he speaks.

“You are a strange woman.”

She laughs so hard she ends up grabbing her stomach, hunched in her chair, and he has to fight the urge to join her. Because he’s serious. Her laughter is infectious but he means what he says. He’ll _never_ understand Warden-Commander Cousland.

The trip to Weishaupt is long and bitter cold. When they arrive, however, Cousland is bursting with energy. She’s a natural in these situations; more suited for parties of the nobility than the dark corners of the Deep Roads. No one needs this kind of charisma when they’re dealing with darkspawn.

“And this is my Howe–I mean my new second, Warden Nathaniel Howe.” she says, laughing, to the First Warden when they meet. Nathaniel shakes hands and fights the urge to fall into their usual banter over it.

When they first met after the Blight, he wanted her to pay. Perhaps not in blood, like he thought, but he wanted _something_. Their friendship, if it could be called that, was on sharp rocks for weeks. But he got payment in a form he never expected.

“I had such a crush on you when we were small.” she admitted, buzzed on wine and recalling the past with him.

He didn’t have the guts to tell her he still had one. That now, even, it was _worse_ than before.

He didn’t expect to be named her second-in-command. He was perfectly comfortable with the titles he did have.

“So, is this weird? Getting titles?” she asks, hand on the small of his back as they exit the First Warden’s office.

“Should it be?” he asks.

Her hand slides from his back to rest on his hip, her own bumping against him as she pulls him closer, and she smiles. She’s close.

“Is _this_ weird?” she repeats, though she means something else.

He looks at her, grinning, and asks again, “Should it be?”

Perhaps she used the wrong word when they spoke before. Perhaps it was the same cowardice he had in not saying anything.

Nathaniel slings an arm over her shoulders and asks, “Who said I was _your_ Howe, anyway?”

“Should I make my claim a little more clear?” she asks cheekily.

He smiles, tries not to look at her–because it’ll ruin the banter, and says, “If you think you can convince me.”

As it turns out, Couslands are just as good at persuasive arguments as they are at protecting woodland creatures. It’s another title Nathaniel gains that he never expected.


End file.
